Vandals spray anti-Semitic graffiti in two Paris suburbs

Large swastikas and message praising anti-Jewish terrorist painted near French capital

JTA — Large swastikas were scrawled on a kosher pizzeria in suburban Paris.

The Jewish owner of the B’Paradise pizzeria in Sarcelles discovered the swastikas on Monday, according to Metro, a French daily. The newspaper reported that the swastikas were spray-painted Saturday on the shop display of the pizzeria, which overlooks the main synagogue of Sarcelles, a northern suburb of Paris that is home to approximately 60,000 Jews.

In September, members of what French authorities described as “a dangerous Jihadist network” detonated a grenade inside a kosher supermarket in Sarcelles, lightly wounding one person.

Also Saturday, unknown individuals spray-painted slogans praising Mohammed Merah, the killer of four Jews in Toulouse on March 19, in Orgeval, an eastern suburb of the French capital. A report in L’Union, a local paper, said one piece of graffiti called for the release of Youssouf Fofana, the leader of a gang who in 2006 tortured and killed Ilan Halimi, a young Jewish man from the Paris region, because they wanted to kill a Jew.

Meanwhile, on Monday, a headmaster of a school in Melilla, a Spanish city on the Moroccan coastline, denied reports that the recent assault of a Jewish high school student by Muslim classmates was motivated by anti-Semitism or related to the Israeli-Arab conflict.

The boy was assaulted on Nov. 23 at the Enrique Nieto School, according to a report in Melilla Hoy, a local newspaper. The report did not say whether the boy sustained any injuries.

By signing up, you agree to our
terms
You hereby accept The Times of Israel Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, and you agree to receive the latest news & offers from The Times of Israel and its partners or ad sponsors.